When we think about southern Ontario ecosystems the ones that most often spring to mind are our wonderful forests. We are very fortunate to have a type of forest rarely found in Ontario right here in the Hamilton area: Carolinian forest.

Forests are defined as areas dominated by trees and usually also having understory vegetation, where the amount of understory vegetation decreases with the maturity of the tree canopy.

The 'understorey', is the layer of plant life that grows underneath the trees above.

Immature Understorey. Photo by Alan Ernst.

Up to ninety percent of the land in southern Ontario was once covered by forest; eighty percent of this is gone because of land clearing for agriculture and human habitation.